MPA Locator

Although information on the exact locations of MPAs is readily available, many people in the community may have trouble knowing exactly when one is inside a protected zone. The Department of Fish and Game currently has an online website attempting to address this issue by providing a map with the zone drawn out, however, it is difficult to use and may not show the user’s current location.

One goal this quarter is to begin developing a mobile application that leverages push notifications to alert a user when they enter and leave an MPA with possible support of an offline mode so users out at sea may still get the information they need without the worry of having a reliable data connection.

MPA Watch Database

There are many non-profit organizations working to patrol the numerous MPAs along the coast of california. Volunteers are trained to passively observe the public’s use of coastal and marine resources inside and outside of MPAs. This information is then used to make enforcement decisions as well as measure the effectiveness of the MPA. Although many organizations currently use this technique, there is no standard report sheet format or centralized database for these statistics.

The goal for this project is to provide a platform that simplifies entering, aggregating, and visualizing this data to allow San Diego Coastkeeper to better analyze trends and enforcement effectiveness.

 

Poaching Prosecution Database

A current problem is the prosecution and punishment for poachers statewide tends to be inconsistent.

San Diego Coastkeeper currently uses the Ushahidi crowdsourcing platform to track the different open and closed poaching cases across the state of California. However, there are many needed features that Ushahidi lacks, and many unneeded features that Ushahidi provides.

The goal for this project is to provide an easy to use platform that promotes uniform data entries for consistency, as well as provide the ability for users run in-depth reports, comparisons, and trend analysis.